CAMEROON: Nearly 80 school children kidnapped in Bamenda
Armed separatists have kidnapped nearly 80 people, majority of them students, in an English-speaking region of Cameroon witnessing an armed campaign for independence, a governor has said. Governor Deben Tchoffo said students from a Presbyterian school, located in Nkwen village near Bamenda in the restive northwest region, were abducted on Monday along with their principal, […]
FILE PHOTO: A Cameroonian elite Rapid Intervention Battalion (BIR) member walks past a burnt car while patroling in the city of Buea in the anglophone southwest region, Cameroon October 4, 2018. Picture taken October 4, 2018.REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra/File Photo
Armed separatists have kidnapped nearly 80 people, majority of them students, in an English-speaking region of Cameroon witnessing an armed campaign for independence, a governor has said.
Governor Deben Tchoffo said students from a Presbyterian school, located in Nkwen village near Bamenda in the restive northwest region, were abducted on Monday along with their principal, a teacher and a driver.
Bamenda is the capital of Cameroon’s northwest region, which is facing attacks by anglophone separatists.
A video purportedly of the kidnapped children was released on social media by Amba boys, a reference to the state of Ambazonia that armed separatists are trying to establish in Cameroon’s northwest and southwest regions, Associated Press news agency reported.
In the video, the kidnappers force several students to give their names and the names of their parents. The children say they were kidnapped by the Amba boys, and they don’t know where they are being held.